This week in history: IBM comes to Boca Raton

IBM began producing small mainframe computers in leased office space in Boca Raton in September 1967. Three years later the company opened a multimillion dollar plant on 550 acres in western Boca Raton, just north of what was then the city of University Park and south of the FAU campus. Don Estridge led the team that created the first personal computer there in 1981. One of the early IBM buildings now houses Don Estridge High Tech Middle School. At its peak IBM employed 9,500 in Boca Raton, but eventually, low-priced competitors forced work force reductions and in 1988, IBM moved its PC assembly lines to North Carolina.

Aerial view of the IBM plant in 1973. (Palm Beach Post file photo)

IBM employees leaving a 1988 meeting where they were offered incentives to leave the company. IBM was trying to reduce its workforce at the Boca plant by 1600 people. (Palm Beach Post staff file photo)